A certain friend of ours, whom we love very much, can’t eat dairy.
As another friend of mine who parents a severely allergic child would said, Food allergies suck.
But we don’t mind modifying food while we’re with our friend. It’s not a big deal, though I have to say I am continually shocked at how many food products contain milk/milk products. Just look at a food label sometime – dairy is everywhere.
I had some bananas that were perfectly overripe – the browner, softer and more disgusting-looking, the better they are for making banana bread.
I have a great recipe for banana bread that I frequently make (see my recipe here). Usually I’ll substitute dairy-free margarine for the butter when we’re with our friends.
Only I didn’t have any dairy-free margarine. I’d managed to go to the grocery store and successfully stocked up on rice milk (which I drink all the time anyway), dairy-free creamer and Almond Dream chocolate dairy-free “ice cream” bites. But I didn’t remember the margarine.
What to do?
Easy – there are tons of things you can substitute for butter/margarine: oil, nut butters, applesauce…I could go on.
For my recipe, I simply substituted 1/3 c. canola oil (a very clean tasting oil) and 2 T. peanut butter for the 1/2 c. butter/margarine called for in the recipe.
We all agreed that the peanut butter, because I used a small amount, gave the bread an incredibly tasty flavor note. If you didn’t know it was peanut butter, I’m not sure you would have been able to identify what it was.
It’s just like a healthy version of Elvis Presley’s favorite peanut butter and banana sandwich!